When Death Comes To Pemberley was released, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. A promising fiction crossover from one of my favorite modern mystery writers wading into popular period literature. I saw it was curious to see how PD James spun off a murder mystery from the most popular romantic classic of the 19th century – Pride & Prejudice.
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It’s said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Still, I am convinced had Miss Austen been alive, she would have felt quite abused by the many versions this story has taken and how her favorite characters have progressed. Of course, quality is not an issue with James, who is a credible writer in her own right, and she begins the novel quite rightly and humbly with an apology to Austen for bringing a sense of morbidity to a world created by her.
The Plot
James sets the story in Pemberley, several years after the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth, a few days before the traditional autumn ball. The Wickhams are still estranged from the family, and on the eve of the ball, Lydia Wickham makes a dramatic entrance into the Pemberley driveway yelling, “My husband has been murdered !”
Now, one would expect that this would set up the tone for a juicy murder investigation where at least Darcy or Elizabeth would take up a sleuthing role and try to find clues and fit pieces together. But that is not the case.
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Verdict
Using P&P as the prologue to this novel really ties James’s hands down in terms of plot. A lot of the narrative is spent paraphrasing events from the original story and explaining the context of the relationship of main characters.
PD James has had some fun imagining what happened to the lives of ancillary characters like Mary Bennet, Mr. Collins, Charlotte Collins, Kitty Bennet, Mr. Bingly after P&P ended. None of this actually adds to the plot. The character growth of some of the leading players is constrained by what we already know about them and does not fit into a murder mystery kind of novel.
The third-person narrative is slow, often reflective and has very little to do with the murder at most times. There is a lot of focus on Darcy’s position in society, his relationship with Wickham and the relationships of the family in general. PD James has introduced some new characters to the Pemberley household, but none of them interesting enough to leave an impression.
In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to care about who died, how and why he was killed, and how the murderer found out.
Unless I am getting it all wrong, and this is not a murder mystery and a period novel in which someone dies.
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8 comments
I had forgotten that you had a tremendous talent for writing. Well done..
So Kapil finally realized that you would love to be gifted a book huh 🙂 that’s sweet! My first thoughts were that P D James would’ve introduced a new detective into the P&P novel or atleast set it in a modern day context with Dagliesh as the detective. Sad that it doesn’t have a good mystery in it and there was no credible detective involved. I’d have liked Agatha Christie to use this setting for Hercule Poirot…sadly though she and her character are happily buried aren’t they!
loved the post. Esp. the way you started it 😀
@Vaishakhi – thank you !
@Zoya – yes he did..it was quite an average read
@Radhika – hehe thank you!
That prologue was dreadful, wasn’t it? And I agree, what’s the point if the reader doesn’t care who was killed or how and why? And if it is just a period piece and not a mystery then it fails miserably at that too.
Stefanie – Thanks for making the time to read this. Yes it was quite a bad book..and you are right its quite contrived as a period piece too
Well, a murder based off P&P is not one I want to read about. Somehow P&P is too sacred a piece of writing for me, that any kind of spin off would feel like a mockery being made of it. And from your review, it seems like P.D James did just that 🙁
🙂 she did not mock it but she just couldn’t live up to the premise of the story